Orienteering USA E-newsletter

This is the first edition of a newsletter that is being sent to OUSA members. We hope that you enjoy it.

The newsletter will try to let you know about what is going on with OUSA on a timely basis. ONA is a great resource and benefit for OUSA members but sometimes there are things that are happening now and getting them into ONA would take too much time. Articles in ONA may “flesh out” the things mentioned in the newsletter but the newsletter lets you know what the “news” is.

Orienteering On NPR

Just received word from CSU that a piece will be on “Only a Game” on National Public Radio this weekend, Nov. 19th. The interviewer came to the CSU Middle Distance event and saw a lot of great orienteering. The reporter interviewed a series of folks from a 9 year old orienteer, to two cadets from West Point, to Peter Gagarin to OUSA president Peter Goodwin. Many thanks to Larry and Sara Mae Berman for making this happen. It will be broadcast at different times on different stations, but this link should allow you to find when you might tune in: http://orienteeringusa.org/news/2011/events/only-game-npr-us-champs

Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd

Ali Crocker is going to be mentioned in the Nov. 21st issue of Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd. The only one on the list that I know is Ali. Way to go Ali!

Maddy Crawford - Soccer
Kyle McGivney - Football
Catherina Li - Golf
Nick Estevez – Water polo
Ali Crocker - Orienteering
Alex Manwaring - Football

2012 Budget Gives More Backing to the Team

An OUSA Board meeting last Sunday passed a budget includes funding for our teams at the rate of half of their typical expenses for the year. As the budget process started last Summer, there was a desire to have a balanced budget and support our teams. We almost have a balanced budget but our teams will have to raise less money through their fund raising efforts and donations. Supporting our teams is important for our organization.

The OUSA Membership and Starts Contest is Still Going!

Our membership and local starts contests are in full swing with a month and a half to go! There are separate categories for big and small clubs so everyone has a chance. Even northern clubs have some time left to run well advertised meets and increase their start numbers. Clubs can still win a part of the $3,000 that OUSA will be giving away. For example:

NTOA (TX) hosted the Dallas City championships with over 400 starters for one meet
OLOU (KY) with support from the state of Kentucky hosted a National Orienteering Day event with an 80% attendance increase over 2010.
Not to be outdone, QOC (DC,MD,VA) regular recruits current club members to become OUSA members, to date they have recruited and forwarded over 50 individuals who are interested in becoming OUSA members.
The word of this contest has even spread all the way to the 49th state. We have had a call from AOC (AK) asking how they can win.

If you have any questions or ideas call Glen at 410.802.1125 or email at gjs@orienteeringusa.org.

To all club leadership, remember to make sure your charter information counts every member and every start. Also please make sure your get your charter information in on time. This is how we are going to judge the results and award the cash prizes.

OUSA Mints New A-meet Participants with Discounts for First Timers

What do Ken Kling of Louisville, KY, Joe Walker of Fallbrook, CA and Yangki Yuen of Champaign, IL all have in common? Each of them ran their first "A-Meet" meet in 2011! On top of that, they got money back for doing this.

This summer and fall, Orienteering USA has been providing discounts to first time A-meet participants. To date dozens of orienteers have sent in their coupon and OUSA has sent out almost $1000 in rebates. These rebate funds were made possible by an anonymous major gift to OUSA.

Our last A-meet is this weekend in San Francisco, hosted by Get Lost!! and Vladimir Gusiatnikov. If you are in the area and have never been to an A-meet, click here for your coupon and then go have fun! This meet should be awesome. The sprints all are in great places. More information at http://getlostxx.com/Sprint/the_Golden_Gate/2011.

Have you visited OrienteeringUSA.org lately?

OrienteeringUSA.org is more than just a pretty face and a library of information. The Web Committee has made lots of improvements and you might visit it and investigate what it has to offer if you have a few spare minutes. The Home Page has some great new features:

Click on "Come try Orienteering" and you are one or two clicks away from any orienteering club or event in the country. Type in your zip code and see what happens. If you are traveling, you can find a local club easily and orienteer on a new map and meet new people. People new to orienteering can also find their local club more easily.
You can now use the OUSA Event Register, debuting with US Champs sign-ups. This is a feature that will eventually be used for most if not all A-meets and may also evolve into a system that clubs can use for their meets. It is now available online.
Click on "Join Orienteering USA" and join, or renew, your membership on line and save a stamp. (Poor old USPS……)
Since it is Annual Fund time of year, click on "Support Orienteering" and make your end of the year donation. Again, save a stamp!

See you in the woods.

Peter and Glen